Australian politics live: Greens deputy Mehreen Faruqi not able to represent the Senate as part of delegations

The first Question Time of the 48th Parliament has broken several representation records. Not only in disability but also in gender participation.

It has been a point highlighted by Catherine King, who has declared in the session on Wednesday that it marked the first majority female Parliament in Australia’s history.

She also congratulated the new member for Sturt MP Claire Clutterham for being the first female to hold the seat.

“We have the first majority female parliament in our history, and you can see from behind me that Labor has been doing the lion’s share of that work,” she said.

“Having women in the room matters, and making sure women are represented across the country also does not happen by accident. You have to purposely do it.”

Her final words come after the Coalition haven’t agreed to introduce quotas to improve their party’s female participation.

Calare independent MP Andrew Gee has asked Health Minister Mark Butler what the Albanese Government is doing to address a doctor shortage crisis in rural and regional Australia.

“Country people have shorter life expectancies than city people. It’s outrageous,” Mr Gee said in his preamble.

Mr Butler admitted it has “never been harder to find a GP in Australia than it has been over the last several years”, adding Labor was committed to improving health care as it had campaigned on at the election.

“There is no single fix for this challenge, which is why we are trying to work right across a range of areas to improve that access,” he said.

“We know that we’re not going to be able to train enough Australians quickly enough to deal with the challenges. which is why we’re also trying to cut red tape and cut costs for overseas-trained doctors.

“In the last 12 months, there’s been a 500 per cent increase in the number of GPS from those three countries applying to come here and work in communities like yours.”

After Jason Clare expressed his thanks to the Opposition for their willingness to act swiftly on making the childcare sector safer, Sussan Ley has returned the praise.

The Opposition leader said it was an “incredibly important issue” and thanked the education minister for engaging her and Shadow Education Minister Jonathon Duniam.

“Can I thank the Minister for Education for the way that he has engaged with me, with my team… reiterate my strong desire to work positively and proactively on this incredibly important issue,” she said, adding the issue made her feel sick.

“I can’t think of many issues in my time in this Parliament that have made me feel as physically sick as this one has. I know this feeling is shared by members across the aisle.

“The legislation was introduced this morning, and we want to examine it closely, as we should.

“We do stand ready to continue to make sure that we get this right.”

In a strong show of bipartisanship in the first Question Time, Education Minister Jason Clare and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley have shared a moment of solidarity to make the childcare sector safer.

Mr Clare has used his time at the dispatch box to thank the Liberal leader for swiftly agreeing to support the Government’s reforms to the industry after horrific allegations out of dozens of Melbourne centres.

“Mr Speaker, I want to thank the leader of the opposition, and I want to thank the Shadow Minister for Education and the Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and your teams for the serious and professional and bipartisan way in which you’ve engaged with us on this legislation,” he said.

“This is what mums and dads watching across the country want of us. And expect of us and deserve of us.”

Curtin independent MP Kate Chaney has asked the Communications Minister, Anika Wells why there has been little to no action on targeting harmful online gambling.

“In the last Parliament, this government initiated an inquiry into online gambling,” she stated.

“The government hasn’t even responded to the report, let alone implemented its recommendations”

Ms Wells responded by saying Labor had a “genuine and ongoing commitment to reforming” the issue.

“I know that’s a commitment shared by all the committee members of the 47th Parliament. I will assure the member for Curtin that that work goes on,” she said.

Petrie MP Emma Comer has asked Dorothy Dixer to the Defence Minister on defence investment.

It’s an interesting question after the Netherlands’ top-ranked military official, General Onno Eichelsheim, this week warned Australia will need to increase its defence capabilities in response to China’s military build-up.

In his response, Richard Marles listed off all the high-level international trips he has made since the election where defence spending has been announced on the global stage, including the NATO leader’s summit at the Hague and annual Shangri-la defence dialogue in Singapore.

He claimed Labor had made the biggest peacetime increase in Defence spending in Australia’s history and added there has been a “significant reprioritisation of the defence budget”.

“Defence has spent more on procurement than ever, the bulk of which has gone to the Australian Defence industry, supporting Defence jobs,” he said.

“This government is, amidst all the noise, delivering a thoughtful, sober and serious plan to keep Australia safe.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has refused to rule out unrealised capital gains taxes.

His refusal came after Liberal’s shadow IR Minister Tim Wilson used Question Time to ask if he stood by comments he’d previously made about Labor’s super tax on unrealised capital gains applying to around 80,000 people.

“When we announced the policy, the expectation was that there would be about 0.5 per cent of people in the superannuation system impacted by what is a very modest change,” he said.

“As the Assistant Treasurer said a moment ago, we are big believers in superannuation.

“We’re about strengthening superannuation, and those opposite are about weakening superannuation.

“Part of our responsibility to the superannuation system is to make sure that it is treated in a concessional way.

“After these changes are implemented, there still will be generous tax concessions for everyone in the superannuation system, but for the 0.5 per cent of people with balances more than $3 million.”

Less than half an hour into Question Time and the first punches have been thrown on the Coalition’s fracturing over its net zero commitment by 2050.

It was a jab Labor were expected to use after Barnby Joyce introduced a net-zero repeal private members’ bill on Wednesday morning. It had been swiftly supported by his colleague Michael McCormack.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen was colourful in his language of the breakdown of Coalition climate stance, even referencing the MP’s “Tinder profile”.

“The member for New England and member for Riverina (were) out there this morning backing each other in,” he said.

“The member for Riverina said on a show, ‘We’re virile and we’re out there”.

“This is not his Tinder profile. This is his dream ticket. He’s not looking to swipe right.”

He accused the regional member’s bid to scrap net zero targets as a “betrayal” of people in rural and regional Australia grappling with drought and flood.

“People in rural and regional Australia have the most to gain from the jobs and investment created by net zero,” he said.

National’s leader David Littleproud has followed Sussan Ley’s question on superannuation tax policy, asking in Question Time how it would affect farming families with self-managed superannuation funds.

Labor’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister Daniel Mulino responded by saying the policy was about “fairness of the superannuation system”.

“It is going to be a reform that applies only to balances of $3 million or more, balances which are well above that is needed for people to achieve dignity and certainty in retirement,” he said.

Independent MP for Bradfield, Nicolette Boele, has asked her first question in the house, focusing on Labor’s long-time promise to reform Australian’s aged environmental laws.

The 1999-implemented laws don’t include requirements for the Environmental Minister to consider the climate impact of projects.

Bringing up one of Labor’s first moves to approve the North West Shelf gas project after the election, Ms Boele asked: “When will the pro-fossil fuel Albanese government stop gas lighting the Australian public and implement the changes it has long promised on our Environmental reforms?”

As Minister Murray Watt is a Senator and doesn’t sit in the House, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has answered the question.

He said the Environment Minister is working with industry stakeholders and environmental groups to reintroduce reforms to the laws to the House this term.

“That work is being done and it’s being done by the government,” he said.